Deerhunter - Microcastle (2008)

Sounds like: Running in rainbow jello, Bradford Cox daydreaming, My Bloody Valentine drinking cokes and just hangin' out
Mp3:Microcastle [full album, thanks Rory], Twilight at Carbon Lake

Bradford Cox is having a great year. He's released his first solo recording, a self-titled LP under the name 'Atlas Sound', and now he's poised to release another album as Deerhunter. This helping sounds decidedly more poppy than Deerhunter's first release, Cryptograms, picking up on the success of Spring Hall Convert and Strange Light's sugary shoegaze sound. Much less time is focused on experimental ambient songs. The atmospheric tracks are still here, but they're less numerous, and more likely to have some sparse vocals by Cox thrown in. The album starts out with some of the obvious singles, winds down into a mellower section, and then builds it back up with the last couple tracks. It's sad to see Deerhunter shying away from their stranger work to marrying their unique style crafted on Cryptograms to more mainstream sounds. Microcastle is still great, it just shows Deerhunter taking a surprisingly safe route.

Indian Jewelry - Free Gold! (2008)

Sounds like: Hotboxing the Velvet Underground in slow-motion, Flying Saucer Attack wearing leather jackets, precise cave jams
Mp3:Pompeii, Swans

Listening to the second release from Texas-based trio Indian Jewelry is a trip. Unlike a lot of noisy experimental bands though, it's a measured trip. The average track length charts in around 3 minuets. No obnoxious ten minuet drone sessions here. Every track is a distorted dirge; a thick gray sludge dripping from your speakers. The record can sound a little smug sometimes, but you can't blame people for feeling cool when they dropped an album this heavy.

Television Personalities - And Don't the Kids Just Love It (1981)

Sounds like: Ramshackle jangle pop, twee for tough guys, post-punk, music to wear a bowler hat to
Mp3: Silly Girl

Television Personalities have been around forever, but their first proper release, And Don't the Kids Just Love It, will always be their best. It sounds sort of like punk, but it's much too playful. Proto-twee if you will. Maybe even a touch of psychedelia. Guitars twinkle with lofi recording and snares hiss. Whatever it was, they nailed it.

The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Graves (2008)

Sounds like: basic folk, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan's voice got crossed with Jeff Mangum's in Sweden
Mp3:The Gardener

Kristian Matsson, aka The Tallest Man on Earth, will never escape the Bob Dylan comparisons, but it doesn't seem like too terrible a shadow to live in. His voice warbles in the way any good folk singer's should, his acoustic strumming sounds refreshing yet familiar, and his lyrics are solid. He's already released a self-titled EP, but this is his first LP. Heartfelt, cryptic, and never stale. Check out the latest and greatest from Sweden.

Les Rallizes Denudes - '77 Live Disk 1 (1991)

Sounds like: Psyche-Noise, Blowing out your speakers in Japanese, if Boris and Merzbow covered Flower Traveling Band underwater
Mp3:'77 Live Disk 1 [full album]

Les Rallizes Denudes are the godfathers of Japanese psyche. They took a basic bass line that sounds like something ripped out of "My Girl", some lazy drumming, a singer with way too much reverb for his own good, and a guitar lead that builds its way from hazy to furious over the course of a song. As the set goes on things only get louder, until everything is a blistering sheet of noise. By Yet through each song, the basic bass line never falters. The result is a trippy groove of static. Boris and the Boredoms wouldn't have been shit without these guys. Be warned though, it was the 70's, the songs all chart in at over 11 minuets.